This invention relates to the field of garments and a method of manufacturing the same, and more particularly, to a medical garment of lightweight material formed from a single blank and a method for manufacturing same.
As background, manufacturing a hospital garment from a single blank is known. Representative of such a manufacturing process is U.S. Pat. No. 3,911,499 to Benevento et al. It is also known based on Benevento to cut material from the blank which is used subsequently as an overlap in the back panel of the gown. The blank used in Benevento, however, is not of a standard rectangular configuration and does not utilize substantially all of the material cut-off from the blank. In order to assemble the Benevento gown, curvilinear cuts are made in the Benevento blank. These non-straight cuts, however, are not conducive to manufacturing the gown, primarily by a folding process.
The hospital gown in Benevento is described as being formed by an unbroken single front panel and seams extending from the armpit underneath the sleeves to the cuffs and across the back. The Benevento gown is not, however, suitably protective against bacteria as well as adequately reinforced for today's lightweight materials used in this type of garment. It is, therefore, advantageous to provide a hospital garment which not only is protective against bacteria, i.e. impervious as the fabric used, but also adequately reinforced to provide sufficient garment strength.
Ultrasonic welding of specific medical garment seams is also known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,608,719 to Lunt, Jr. et al. discloses a disposable medical gown wherein the margins of the rear fold is ultrasonically seamed to the upper edges of the notches to create outstretched sleeves and to the upper edges of the rear flaps to form the rear panel of the gown which can be slipped over the head of the wearer. Hospital gowns such as the Lunt gown have also been found to be disadvantageous as they do not provide for adequate reinforcement. Furthermore, cuts made in the generally rectangular blank in Lunt are not subsequently used as component parts of the gown, thus leading to material waste which thereby further increases costs.